57 bowls later

[Pat Scott]

I got a truck load of White Ash last week from a tree that was cut down. I'm not as fast as Glenn Lucas or Mike Mahoney, so it took me more than a few days to process everything. Thought I'd post some pictures of the process. My forearms need a break! I think I'll make something small and lightweight now.

Average diameter is 16" to 18".
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End of day 1: all the blanks have been chainsawed (except for another stack that I took into the shop before remembering to take a picture).
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I've never seen bug tracks like this before. Since this was an Ash tree, I assume the Emerald Ash borer bug made these tracks. It's almost as if a bunch of them lined up and had a race.
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All of the blanks waiting to be cut round on the bandsaw.
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End of day 2: Twenty bowl blanks and a whole barrel full of peppermill and other spindle blanks. It was easier to stack all the spindle blanks in a trash can and slip a trash bag over the top until I could wax them.
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End of day 3 & 4: Twenty roughed out and ready to core blanks in 12" to 15" diameter. I'm hoping to get 3 bowls out of each blank. I did the 12" and 13" blanks one day, and the 15" blanks the next day.
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End of day 5, 6, and 7: Due to some defects in the wood that I had to work around, I ended up with 57 bowls and one platter blank. The bowls were cored, and the cores were cored. The bowls range in size from 6" to 15". After drying I should end up with some nice usable size salad bowls in the 11" to 14" range, which is what I was after.
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I filled up ten 42 gallon contractor trash bags with clean shavings that my friend will take for his horse stalls. In case you're thinking why bother with all the small 6"-8" bowls, I have a store that takes all the small bowls I can make. Tourists love buying a small bowl to remember their trip to Colorado, and with the small size they are able to pack them in their suitcase. I also use the small bowls as a gift to Arborists when they call me about a tree they're taking down.

[John Keeton]

Now, that is work!! I have great respect for production turners, but it just ain't in me! That is more bowls than I have turned in total since I jumped into the vortex.

[Roger Chandler]

Now that is a haul, and very nice work, Pat. I think about my own situation, and wish I had room to store wood in various stages of drying, roughouts, and of course just blanks ready to go, but my small space is totally prohibitive of that, although I do manage to keep a couple at a time drying in paper bags.

[Al Wasser]

You will be sick and tired of turning ash in a while and yearn to turn something different

[Lloyd Butler]

Some of those larger blanks would have made great natural edge bowls, though they would have been much harder to core.

Great haul for ash as I suspect most will survive the drying, starting this late in the season.

[David Delo]

I had to take a nap after just looking at the pictures! Nice storyline Pat.

[Pat Scott]

Lloyd I was surprised at how little moisture there was in these. None threw water and I didn't take a bath. The middle shavings were cool and that's about it.
I don't do natural edge bowls, I'm more a traditional salad bowl man. But after I got done I remembered that I forgot to cut up some dinner plate and individual salad bowl blanks. Next load.

Al if I get tired of turning Ash, I'll just grab a Maple, Walnut, Elm, Sycamore, Honey Locust, or Cottonwood blank from the basement. I love turning bowls, and I have hundreds to choose from. If I get into a production run on making peppermills and I haven't made a bowl in a week or two, I need a fix and have to make a bowl. I sell my bowls, so I'm always under the gun to keep finished inventory ready to go. I am running low on Walnut, so if anyone hears of a tree being cut down in the Denver area, let me know!
:)

[Tom Albrecht]

I admire your determination and stamina.

Did you seal the bowl blanks? How will they be stored?

[Chris Gunsolley]

I just want to say thanks for sharing, Pat. Great job. I enjoyed the visual overview and when you look at that last picture--WOW! Look at all those bowls you ended up with!

[Pat Scott]

Did you seal the bowl blanks? How will they be stored?

I seal the complete bowl inside and out with green wood sealer. I'm trying to use up my Baileys sealer so I can give Craft Supplies new sealer a try. I'll either store the bowls nested inside each other with wood spacers between bowls (as seen in the picture), or randomly lean them up against each other like you would stack dishes on the counter. None of the bowls are ever stacked more than 2 feet high, and they are in an unfinished corner of my basement. I keep them this way for several months before I move them up onto a shelf.

In this picture the Ash bowls are on the left and most are nested and stacked to save space. At the back right corner you can see a large Ash bowl upside down, and it's hiding maybe 10 or 12 bowls of various sizes under it. On the right side in the picture are a bunch of Maple blanks which are dry enough to turn so I've taken the spacers out of them to use with the Ash.
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I write the species, date, diameter, and if it's a nested set I'll write 1/3, 2/3 (1 of 3, 2 of 3, etc) on the blanks. I usually rough out several nested sets on the same day, so the first set is A 1/3, A 2/3, second set B 1/3, B 2/3, etc. I write the diameter so after the blank dries I have a notebook that I keep track of the green diameter, dry diameter, how much it warped/shrunk, and then I measure the diameter again after the bowl is done and sanded. This way if a customer wants a specific size bowl, I'll know what size rough bowl to start with because I've got a good idea of shrinkage, and how much more will be lost truing up and sanding the bowl. I've learned that Maple, Walnut, or Ash will shrink an average of 1/2" to 5/8" when they go oval, but Elm can shrink 3/4" to 1". I have a moisture meter to check dryness, I'll let blanks air dry until they are around 8-10% moisture content. This is usually never a problem for me because I have so many bowls to choose from. You can see a couple of shelves on the left in the picture, but what you don't see is 4 more shelves to the left of these, and all the other blanks that I have on the floor. You've seen those hoarder shows on TV where people have a winding path through their house because of all the junk? Yeah, that's me with my wood.

[Dok Yager]

Whoa Pat cataloged and sized. Sheesh I don`t think I have done that many since day one. Nice! You kind of remind me of another turner just north of you about 45-1 hour. Dale! I would "assume" you would know of whom I speak. He`s around here once in a while too when he`s not busy gathering, producing or selling blanks. Or running his "real" business.

[Dave Fritz]

A job well done. I'll bet you have lots of extra for the stove too. I'm curious about the insect tracks in the tree. I thought the ash borer only worked on the cambium layer?

[Pat Scott]

A job well done. I'll bet you have lots of extra for the stove too. I'm curious about the insect tracks in the tree. I thought the ash borer only worked on the cambium layer?

Good point on the Ash borer! I think you're right, I posted the photo hoping someone else would know.

I'm not hurting for firewood at all. I'm running out of places to store it also, so I'm looking forward to some nice fires this winter. We had our fireplace and chimney completely remodeled last season and put in a brand new wood burning stove that lets you have a fire any day you want, even on non-burn days.

Dok, yes I know Dale!

[Dave Fritz]

I'd be curious too what made those tracks. I know when wood starts to deteriorate other insects attack, just like fungi. I was spaulting some American elm and had shiitake mushrooms growing from them.

[Martin Drummond]

Your a better man than me, thats a lot of work

[Doug Herzberg]

You're an animal, Pat. I had some walnut, but it checked. I didn't know you were looking.

[Jack Riley]

Nice work Pat! I have a white ash awaiting similar action after I recover from my 13th spinal surgery. I noticed that you are in Lakewood, CO. One of my friends in my squad during the Vietnam War was from Lakewood. His name is Pat Hannon and he died from his wounds on September 4, 1966. He has an identical twin brother named Mike who was also in the Marines. We held a company (I/3/9) reunion there a few years ago with graveside services to honor Pat's memory. The Lakewood Pat Hannon VFW post was kind enough to host a reception and luncheon for us after the memorial service. The folks in Lakewood were very friendly and gracious to us during our week long stay.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I'd be curious too what made those tracks. I know when wood starts to deteriorate other insects attack, just like fungi. I was spaulting some American elm and had shiitake mushrooms growing from them.

It looks more like a chainsaw pulled across the wood, I’ve seen enough Emerald Ashborer tracks at my son’s place by Ottawa, these are very small bugs and the tracks go in a zigzag manner right under the Bark in the cambium layer.

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[Pat Scott]

Hi Leo, here's another picture from a different angle. If you look close you can see the holes start at the bark. The tracks look pretty smooth sided and half round shape, which leads me to think it was some kind of bug or worm? I agree with you though, most bug tracks that I've seen are not in a straight line, much less a dozen of them side by side. If it were a chainsaw, wouldn't the tracks be more ragged?
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Jack, sorry to hear about your friend. Believe it or not, I have a twin brother named Mike also. We are fraternal twins, he's 10 minutes older than me. I like to say he's older, but I'm better looking. :)

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Hi Leo, here's another picture from a different angle. If you look close you can see the holes start at the bark. The tracks look pretty smooth sided and half round shape, which leads me to think it was some kind of bug or worm? I agree with you though, most bug tracks that I've seen are not in a straight line, much less a dozen of them side by side. If it were a chainsaw, wouldn't the tracks be more ragged?
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Jack, sorry to hear about your friend. Believe it or not, I have a twin brother named Mike also. We are fraternal twins, he's 10 minutes older than me. I like to say he's older, but I'm better looking. :)

Hi Pat, I don’t know what made the grooves, though I do not believe it was a bug that would/could make these, being exactly evenly spaced, at least several and horizontally alike, no frass.

I would think that a sharp chain at an angle could do that, or sliding onto or off or shoving around on a surface that has some sharp edges, like an open metal (can’t think of the right name), but whatever did cause it, I wouldn’t be worried about it going to attack the rest of your wood pile ;)

[Bob Bouis]

My guess would be the chainsaw made those marks rubbing up against the wood on the way out or while adjusting to finish a cut.

[Jeramie Johnson]

Thanks for posting this Pat. Great to see how others go about it. I recently processed a couple of maples and a black walnut with what time I was allowed. Amazing how the coring multiplies them to so many more bowls. With limited time, it really triples my output for each blank I process.

[Brian Kent]

Pat or others - I am curious about the coring process. After the coring, how does the next bowl attach to the lathe for final cuts or sanding.

[Roger Chandler]

Pat or others - I am curious about the coring process. After the coring, how does the next bowl attach to the lathe for final cuts or sanding.
Brain, you have to put a tenon or recess on each core, usually mounted between a jam chuck and tail center with pressure from the tailstock to hold it in place for forming the tenon.

[Pat Scott]

Pat or others - I am curious about the coring process. After the coring, how does the next bowl attach to the lathe for final cuts or sanding.

There are several ways to do it. The way I do it is not the fastest, but it works for me: I use a screw center to mount the rough blank. Rough turn the outside and create a tenon. I'll do this step to multiple blanks, and it only takes me a few minutes per blank to screw it on, shape the outside, and create a tenon. Then I take the screw center out and mount the first blank by the tenon. I start by coring the largest bowl first (start at the outside with the biggest bowl and work towards the smallest). I'll core out the middle of all the blanks (so now I have the largest bowls ready to wax), then put the screw center back in the chuck. Since I mounted the bowls initially by the screw center, I can take the cored out middle and screw it back on and shape the outside of it and put a tenon on it. Shape all the middle cores this way, then back in the tenon to core one more time for the smallest bowl. Rinse and repeat.

When I get done I have a tenon on every bowl. Other turners will start in the middle and take the smallest bowl first and work their way towards the biggest. I tried this when I first started coring, and I guess I just couldn't visualize correctly or make the knife end up where I wanted. I didn't have a problem with the smallest bowl since it's the first one coming out of a solid blank, but the middle one always gave me fits. When trying to core the middle bowl from the largest bowl, I'd go too shallow and either make a funnel out of the middle bowl, or come real close to making a funnel and end up with too thin of a bottom. Going too deep was never a concern because I was afraid of ruining the largest bowl that I always seemed to not go deep enough. Starting with the largest and working towards smallest means that I'm always working with a solid blank no matter how big it is. If I go too shallow, then all I've done is made the middle core not as thick - but I haven't ruined it. Once I started doing it this way my results went to 100% and I haven't made a funnel since. I've probably cored 1000 bowls this way with the McNaughton, and over the years I've gotten better at using it. I'm pretty used to doing it this way now, but I was thinking the other day that I should try smallest to largest again just to see.

But if you take the smallest core first, then once it pops out you can either leave it as is and wax it, or reverse it and stick it back in the roughout where it just came from. Center it as best as possible, bring up the tailstock, and cut a tenon. Then move on to coring the middle bowl. Another reason why I put a tenon on every bowl, and another reason why I went to 100% success, is that with each core I have flattened the bottom and made a tenon before I removed its middle. What I found is that if I left it as a round bottom core, when it dries you have to flatten the bottom anyway for the foot, right? You can lose a minimum of 1/2" to 3/4" of an inch in height by flattening the bottom to make a tenon (or recess) of the appropriate size. If you didn't have enough thickness in the bottom of the blank to start with, by the time you flatten the bottom and lost that 1/2"+ you might be in trouble. My way does take more time with all the mounting, remounting, etc., but it works for me and no funnels.

One other thing that I do is after I've removed the middle core, I always take a bowl gouge and clean up the inside surface of the large bowl so it's smooth. I'm also able to adjust the wall or bottom thickness as I smooth it out. So the outside is smooth from the initial rough shaping, and the inside is smooth as well. It is SO much easier to wax a smooth surface and uses a lot less wax then if I left it rough from the coring knife. I keep practicing to be the next Mike Mahoney and be as good and fast as him, and I figure I've only got 50,000 more blanks and I should be there!

[Brian Kent]

Thank you Pat and Roger. Both good explanations and I can picture the processes.

[Jeramie Johnson]

I've done both methods, but I usually do Pat's method. And for his exact reasoning!

I did attach a laser to my coring rig (I just mounted a Brown's Best laser (http://ronbrownsbest.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=10) to my coring arm). This helped tremendously with knowing where I would end up and helped visualize if there were imperfections in the blank. (I never bothered to make jigs) It also helps me know exactly where the tip is during coring.